The Vancouver Animal Control Shelter is currently awash in pet rats after someone anonymously dumped 68 of them off at their building earlier this month.

And while not everyone might see the appeal of owning a pet rat, the shelter is hoping that a few people who do will come forward to help them out by adopting some of them.

“There is a preconceived notion that rats are vermin-ridden, and disease-causing and disease-carrying,” said Rachel Blyth with the shelter. “There is a difference in the genetics between the fancy rats that we have and your regular street rats that you see out and about in the garbage and such.”

“Fancy rats,” which are the kind the shelter has, are specifically bred as pets, and Blyth says that if you can get over your squeamishness, they make great pets.